Graham English
Songwriter, Recording Artist, and Blogging Musician
Songwriter, Recording Artist, and Blogging Musician
In the news right now: The Science of Hit Songs:
People pick favorites largely on what others have deemed popular, a new study finds.
The study itself may be new but the principle isn’t. Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., in an academic setting, created the 6 principles of ethical influence many years ago. One of them is the principle [...]
Google announced Google Music Search on their blog.
Right now the music search feature mostly works for artists popular in the U.S. and a more limited number of artists from other countries, but we plan to expand it to classical music, worldwide artists, and lesser-known performers. Our list of music stores will also grow over time. [...]
Coolfer just hipped me to some awesome videos online:
Dave Brubeck performing “Take Five” on Jazz Casual in 1961.
Miles Davis with John Coltrane performing “So What” on a 1958 television show.
Grammys: Sly Stone’s mohawked performance.
You’ll notice at the bottom of the following article is a link to the blog search engine, Technorati:
Heidi Klum’s Search for Top Models: When Super Skinny Is “Too Fat” - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
Seth Godin and Robert Scoble hipped me to this. If I link to this page in one of the most [...]
I wish I hadn’t found about this on February 11. But we’ve still got 17 days to take up the songwriting challenge. Who’s down?
Find out more about February Album Writing Month
Btw, I found this link from Joe Taylor Jr.
Mac only. Sorry.
My good friend Tripp Lanier created a meditation timer widget. It’s works for more than just meditation too. For example, if you’re a musician and you want to ear train or write music for 30 minutes, your music sessions will begin and end with a nice bell sound. There’s even a delay [...]
Source: Music Perception Study
The University of Newscastle at Tyne is running a music perception study. You listen to 30 pairs of short melodies (10 - 12 notes or so) and, for each pair, indicate whether the two are the same or different.
Go try it out.
Mind Hacks posted how choice is demotivating when there are too many options.
“Offer students a choice of 6 essays, rather than 30 essays, for extra-credit and more will take up the opportunity if there is less choice of essay titles - and, what is more, they write better essays.”
And if you have 45 song ideas [...]
Seth Godin has created a service called Squidoo. It’s a platform for you to share your expertise.
I’ve created two Squidoo lenses:
Ear Training Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
Songwriting Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
Where’s your area of expertise? Go reserve your Squidoo lens while it’s still available.
Loading ...A couple of weeks ago I finished reading the book, Naked Conversations, by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. It continues the ideas set forth in The Cluetrain Manifesto that marketing is a conversation. But more importantly, it deals with how that conversation is flourishing through business blogging. The book doesn’t deal with music industry blogging [...]
What is a mashup? A Wikipedia entry defines a mashup as Bastard Pop. Their definition also limits a mashup to the music of one song being combined with the vocals of another.
These days, a mashup can be just about anything. Usually, a mashup is created by one person. But last night, we saw some musical [...]
Here’s a handful of my top techniques that I use to develop new and interesting chord changes.
1. Stick with I-IV-V
I know, it’s not new, but I-IV-V doesn’t have to be uninteresting. There’s a reason why these chords are so fundamental to our harmony. So master them. Use their constraints to challenge your songwriting ability.
2. Copy [...]
Morgan Freeman to Play Duke Ellington in Upcoming Film:
Actor Morgan Freeman will play bandleader Duke Ellington in the upcoming film The Jazz Ambassadors, according to Variety.”
I’m a huge Ellington fan. I’ve been listening to him since I was a little kid. And I had a sax teacher in high school who gave me a mixed [...]
Just imagine a world where you need to insert your credit card into a reader to be able to flush the toilet at a restaurant, where a userID and password is required to fill your bathtub, and where you secretly trade water jugs of rainwater with your neighbors. This is basically what we have in [...]
Ross: Hi, do you consider that each note has a different character? If so, have you found that the same qualities of the same notes are heard by different people (eg. F# = bright, Eb = dull)? If not, what do you see as the point of learning AP besides using it as a party [...]
Jim: Ok, I just want to know what you think the most powerful technique for perfect pitch is. I usually just play an A chord and then randomly choose a note to figure out. It works pretty good but Im sure you’ve got a better trick.
Graham: Jim, here’s what I think the most powerful technique [...]
Shaan: I work during the day and have little time in evening. I really really want absolute pitch is there a quick and easy way of acquiring this skill?
Graham: Shaan, can you commit 15 minutes a day 5 days a week? In my experience, that’s all you need. I still practice my listening skills about [...]
Robert McIndoe: I have been playing guitar for two years now and am very dedicated. I purchased a tuning fork lask week and have downloaded a few ways to tune my guitar using the tuning fork, any tips on tuning, ear and pitch training would be great.
cheers
Graham: Here’s the first site I found in Google [...]
JB: Is your course better than David Lucas Burge’s? If so, why?
Graham: I believe Absolute Pitch Power is better than David Lucas Burge’s Perfect Pitch(R) Ear Training SuperCourse. ~One of the reasons is because my course doesn’t take as long to say.
I bought Burge’s course a long time ago. The testimonials really [...]
*Before I continue, and I’ll say this many times, I operate under the assumption that the opposite of everything I say is equally true. Including the opposite of what I just said.
Here’s my top 10 lyric writing insights:
1. The rhythm of your melody and the rhythm of your lyrics should match.
Rhythm has *strong and [...]
about grahamI'm a songwriter and recording artist who sings, plays keyboards, and explores the vast world of sound hoping to find some magical moments along the way. I'm also a Mac geek.
@solobasssteve You said it. And it's happening so much lately. in reply to solobasssteve 19 mins ago
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